I just can’t decide…

The whole gang who came of age between-the-wars were clean-shaven. After all, it was those bewhiskered Edwardians who got them into the whole end-of-the-world mess to begin with. It was a rebellion, albeit a neat and tidy one, in an effort to look forever young.

These days the trend is towards facial hair AND tailored clothing (lumberjacks aside.) A fuzzy rebellion I gather, against the clean-shaven, cargo shorts, flip flop and tee-shirt-wearing upper management.

My own whiskers came about after a beach vacation taken sans razor. I’ve trimmed it down to this two week-growth to keep it from getting too wild and wooly (which, you’ll agree, isn’t my thing.) There sure is a lot of grey in there. But the look has sort of …. errrr…. grown on me. Probably the influence of too many Italians in the photo blogs.

Should it stay or go? Can one be taken seriously with a fashionably furry face? The things that keep me up at night.

Chris,
You are always very dignified in the way you look. The majority of women will say that a seven day growth of facial hair looks the best on men, but I think it is simply emulating those young Hollywood types who have no real sense of beauty or ethic. They, for the most part, are not people I would want to associate with. They ascribe to the spouse of the week club as they try to feign moral rectitude by their support of some cause of the week, for which they really have no educated knowledge. I don’t want to look like those people nor do I want you to look like them either. Of course, you could leave the whiskers and then complete the look with a pair of tennis shoes (Converse Chuck Taylor), baggy jeans, plaid wool shirt, odd tie and a disheveled sport coat. Then you could move here to the West Coast and teach. The other option is to shave, dress immaculately and continue to teach me the finer points of sartorial excellence. I look forward to learning more from you in the future, my friend.

People put too much thought into something very simple. It looks good! You could let it grow once in a while and then shave it off; so we don’t get bored with your looks. But, if your wife doesn’t care for it, well, that’s another issue. I enjoy changes.